Naked to Mine Enemies

Shakespeare’s lament about the fate of the elderly Cardinal Wolsey, “If I had served my God as I have served my King, He would not in my old age have left me naked to mine enemies”,  seems to leap to mind when reading the applied mythology of Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post.  Economic conservatives like Samuelson have long sought to enlist the aid of the young in their defense against sharing the funding of the country with those old geezers on Social Security. So in his attack this morning on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the Washington Post, he has reached into his mythological quiver to haul out the stale accusation that the ACA “expands the undesirable inter-generational transfer from [younger workers] to their wealthier elders.”  Mythology is valuable when it contains moral truth, but Samuelson’s does not.  You can tell I was irked by it.
Here are some facts from the U.S. Census:
 

One grain of truth in Samuelson’s argument is that those in one age bracket, those under 25, actually make less than the average retiree.  That bracket of course includes part-time working students, entry-level workers, etc.  The other grain is that during the currently receding recession, the average income of those over 65 has remained constant with inflation, because of pension cost of living increases, while the average income of employed people of all ages has declined.  The undesirable transfer of wealth that Samuelson deplores is thus that elders are treading water, and not sinking further. 

Samuelson seems not to recall that 60 years ago, half of those age 65 or above had incomes below the poverty level; today only 20 percent do, and that’s the “transfer of wealth” he worries about.  It’s also worthy of note that the official poverty level these days is a household income of about $19,000.  Since those over 65 include a significant number of women living alone, the fact that the median income for women over 65 is at $15,282 indicates even treading water is not that easy. The male over 65, at a median income of $25,877, is not exactly bursting with wealth either.  So in my mother’s East Texas vernacular, any “transfer” from young to old constitutes “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”  That’s juggling between two bills, neither of which you can fully cover. Only, other alternatives, like stimulating the economy, non-employer based health care coverage, etc., he’s not willing to consider.  Until he’s ready for all, including the really wealthy, to pitch in, he should not be pitting “have-not’s” against each other.